


Heat

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Anal Sex, Communication, Established Relationship, Knotting, Light Angst, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Omega Lance, Relationship Discussions, alpha shiro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-16 02:26:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18085655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Lance is about to go into his first heat after running out of his suppressants. He wants to ask Shiro to share it with him, but they've only been dating for a couple of months, and Lance has never had heat-sex before.





	Heat

**Author's Note:**

> **Warning** : If you are here purely for ABO sex, you're not going to find it. This fic is more about communicating your wants and desires to your partner rather than just sex. The sex is quite literally a very, very small part of the fic. I always wanted to read about nervous partners getting the courage to talk to each other about their needs, so I wrote it.
> 
> Also, I headcanon that heat lasts the same as a menstrual cycle (3-7 days, and then it goes away for a "month") and Lance is one of the lucky few who only has to suffer three days.

Lance’s heat was coming. He felt all of it, the changes in his body, the way he ate more than usual, hoarded food in his room, and experienced bouts of hot and cold flushes. If he was to hazard a guess, he had roughly six or seven more days before it would hit. It should be more than enough time to broach the subject with his boyfriend of two months.

But he wasn’t going to.

It was only within the last couple of weeks that Lance had run out of suppressants. He hadn’t had a heat since he presented as an omega five years ago. He’s had sex before but not during a heat. From what he’s heard, heat-sex was an entirely different experience. Way more intimate. Would Shiro want to share a heat with him? They hadn’t even shared a bed yet, let alone have sex. They were taking things slow.

Did Lance even have the right to ask?

“Lance are you going to eat your food?” said Hunk, breaking Lance’s reverie. “I know it looks good, but I swear it’ll taste even better.”

Snatching up his spoon, Lance muttered, “Yeah. Sorry about that.”

The kitchen was empty save for them; it was incredibly early in the Castle-appointed morning time and everyone else was still asleep. Hunk always got up early on his own volition to prepare breakfast for everyone. Lately Lance couldn’t help but join him as his anxiety kept him awake most nights now.

Lance took two bites of his breakfast only to have anxiety curdle in his stomach, snatching away his appetite. He set his spoon down.

Hunk saw him do it and frowned. “Lance are you okay?”

“Yep, perfectly fine.”

“Why aren’t you eating, then? Is there something wrong with the food?”

“No! Of course not. It’s delicious.”

“Then why aren’t you eating it, if it’s so delicious? You walked in here exclaiming about how hungry you were, and…” Hunk sighed, planting his hands firmly on the table. “Lance, if there’s something wrong, you know you can tell me, right?”

“Yeah, of course I…” Lance couldn’t keep up the cheery façade anymore. Couldn’t keep pretending that nothing was wrong. “My heat is coming up.”

“Um, I know? You already told me about that. Why is it suddenly a big issue?” Instead of answering, Lance merely stared up at him. After a few seconds, he saw the moment Hunk put two and two together, realisation brightening his eyes. “Oh… _Shiro_.”

“Yeah.” Lance planted an elbow on the table, resting his chin on his knuckles. “I don’t know how to ask him if he’ll share my heat with me. Or even if I should.”

“Why shouldn’t you? You’re in a relationship with him, aren’t you? Just ask.”

“Yeah, but we don’t even share a bed,” said Lance. “We haven’t even had sex yet. You think I can just go up and ask if I can share my heat with him?” He laughed incredulously. “Are you _serious_?”

“As a heart attack. You need to know where you stand with him on this, and you won’t know until you ask.”

Lance knew Hunk was right, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. “I guess…”

“Shiro won’t put you down or make you feel bad, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I’m not worried about that.” Lance shook his head, exhaustion creeping up on him. “I don’t want to force my needs on him and make him feel obligated to help me. That’s not fair to him.”

“But ignoring your own needs for his benefit is not fair to _you_. You need to trust him with this.” Hunk reached over and clapped Lance on the shoulder. “Communication is the key to a successful relationship, after all.”

“I know,” Lance mumbled.

“Shiro’s a grown man, as are you. I’m sure you can come to a conclusion that’ll satisfy you both. Talk to him after breakfast.”

Lance sighed. “I will.”

 

* * *

 

For the past few days, Shiro could smell Lance’s approaching heat. He didn’t know what to do. Didn’t know what Lance wanted from him.

The thought of sharing a heat with someone was daunting. Adam, his previous boyfriend, was a beta and thus didn’t have heats. Alphas did not experience ruts without an omega present, it was some kind of biological thing that Shiro had never had a reason to research since he, before the Kerberos mission was ever announced, planned to live the rest of his life with Adam. He was cursing his past self now for that willful oversight. He had no real idea what to expect with Lance now.

What was worse, the tantalising pre-heat aroma of sea salt and coconut Lance was unwittingly producing lingered all over the Castle, much to Keith and Pidge’s disgust. Whilst it made those two cover up their noses with muttered complaints they’d never dare voice to Lance himself, it made Shiro want to bend him over the nearest surface and take him, fuck him until he begged for mercy.

It was _maddening_.

And it wasn’t like he could go and ask Keith or Pidge about this kind of stuff. Keith was asexual and had never had a desire nor a reason to learn. Pidge, on the other hand, _would_ know. But listening to someone who was basically his little sister giving him the clinical run-down on heats was much too embarrassing to think about.

He would just have to make do with what little information he had.

That was, of course, if Lance wanted to share his heat. Shiro was still too stupidly nervous to ask. Whether it was lack of knowledge or the terror of possible rejection that was keeping him from doing it, he didn’t know. But in all the areas of his life he’d thought he’d be play the coward in, his sex life hadn’t made the list at all. 

 _It’s time to square up and talk to him,_ he told himself, marching into the kitchen for breakfast. Already seated at the table, Lance gave him a little smile, then turned his attention back to his half-eaten breakfast as Shiro took the seat beside him.

“Here you are, Shiro,” said Hunk with a warm grin, handing Shiro a bowl.

“Thank you, Hunk.”

They ate in silence. Tension filled the air between them, crackling with electricity. Shiro almost couldn’t bear it. He wanted to shove the food away, order Hunk to leave and keep everyone else out, and have the conversation about heat and sex right there at the kitchen table, propriety be damned. But as Keith walked in spotting the most impressive bed-hair he had ever seen, he deflated. The talk would have to come after breakfast.

Keith sniffed at the air and wrinkled his nose, knowing better than to say anything about the pre-heat pheromones Lance was releasing. It was considered highly rude to criticise the smell of an omega. Shiro was just glad Keith chose to pull a face when Lance wasn’t looking, or they would never hear the end of it.

Breakfast remained a very tense affair.

 

* * *

 

Lance lost his nerve after breakfast and ran to his bedroom, feeling Hunk’s judgemental eyes on his back the whole way there. How was he supposed to talk to Shiro about this? As soon as Shiro walked in, there was this weird _tension_.

He paced around the room, scratching at his arms. His skin felt three sizes too small for his body. What he needed was an outlet for all this stress. But if he left his bedroom he knew he would run into Shiro; as big as the Castle was, all seven of them tended to step on each other’s toes sometimes.

Fact of the matter was that he wasn’t ready to run into Shiro again.

 _You can only avoid him for so long,_ said a judgemental voice in his head that sounded almost like Pidge. He’s your boyfriend. Eventually he’s gonna want to know what’s up.

 _Yeah,_ he responded to it. _Except that doesn’t mean he’s going to come knocking now. He’s Shiro. He’ll give me space, he—_

He was interrupted by a knock on the door.

 

* * *

 

Shiro managed not to hammer the door with his Galra hand, but only just. His skin felt three times too small, and his heart raced a mile a minute. If he didn’t speak to Lance and clear the air. He wanted so many things from Lance, wanted to give so much to him, that he was afraid to say any of it in case he pushed too hard. It had only been two months since Lance’s stuttered confession and Shiro’s equally stuttered acceptance and reciprocation of feelings, after all.

But if he didn’t say anything now, he was scared he would never say anything at all. And that just wasn’t acceptable.

The door swung open.

“Sh-Shiro!” Lance cried. “I, um, didn’t expect to see you so soon…”

He didn’t step aside from the doorway.

Shiro cleared his throat. “May I come in? We, uh, we need to talk.”

He could have punched himself square in the jaw with his Galra hand activated when he saw Lance’s expression fall, despair taking the light from his eyes and the confidence from his posture. Like a mountain in an earthquake, he caved in on himself.

“Not like that!” Shiro shouted, seizing Lance by the shoulders. “I’m not—I’m not breaking up with you, I swear. All I want is to talk.”

“Talk about what?”

“I think you know what. You’re going into heat, aren’t you?”

Lance’s eyes widened. He seized Shiro by the wrist and tugged him into the room. “Not so loud!”

“There’s nothing shameful about it,” Shiro hurried on. “But I…I was just wondering…what do you want to do about it?”

“Wh-what do you mean?”

Shiro sighed. “Please don’t be deliberately obstinate, Lance. It’s really not the time. I want to—I want to know what you want from me right now.”

The silence that followed his words was one he didn’t know how to interpret. It was like they had arrived at an impasse, neither one of them knowing how to move past it. Lance sat down on his bed, one leg crossed over the other, making him look impossibly small.

“I don’t know what I want from you,” he said. “I mean, I want a lot of things. But I don’t know what _you_ want.”

“What?”

“I’ve never had a relationship go for this long where I wasn’t already having sex with them, or at least sleeping in the same bed. You’ve been through so much, and I don’t want to push you into doing something you’re not ready for just for my benefit, you know?”

A smile rose to Shiro’s lips. This love he felt for Lance was something he thought he would never experience again, not after Adam. But now, in its newness, it felt a hundred times greater than ever.

“Do you mind if I sit down?” Shiro waited until Lance nodded, motioning with a short sweep of his hand to the empty space beside him, before he sat down. He drew Lance into his arms, grateful when he came willingly. “Thank you for considering my wants and needs, but Lance I want you to ask me for these things. Even if you think I’m not ready and I’ll say no.”

“But I don’t want to make you feel pressured—”

“I’m not done, Lance.” Shiro kissed Lance’s forehead. “Truth be told, I thought I would be putting pressure on you, too. We’ve both got to take this advice, Lance.”

“You thought _you_ would be pressuring _me_?”

“From your tone of voice, I’ve been just as silly and uncommunicative as you have.”

Lance chuckled. “We’re both idiots. Good thing we’re together then.”

“It’ll save everyone from having to deal with our stupidity.” Shiro nodded, grinning. “So tell me what you want from our relationship, and then I’ll tell you what I want. How about that?”

“What should I start with?”

Shiro thought about it for a moment. “How about…do you want me to share your heat with you?”

“Yes! God, yes. I really want to share my heat. It’s all I’ve been thinking about ever since I ran out of suppressants. But here’s another thing I want; you to share a bed with me. I’m tired of going to sleep in a different room.”

“I’ll…try. Lance, it’s not for the lack of wanting to sleep with you. I still get a lot of nightmares from my time as a prisoner. I’ve been known to lash out wildly when I’m woken up.” Shiro had woken up with his Galra hand glowing more times than he cared to admit. “So—okay, how about we try? A trial run, see how we do.”

“You can always say you want to sleep alone some nights,” said Lance. “We all need space; I’ll understand.”

Shiro kissed him again. “Thank you.”

“So tell me what you want?”

“More physical affection,” Shiro blurted out without thinking.

Lance blinked up at him. “I’m always physically affectionate with you?”

“Yeah, but I can tell you’re always holding back, and sometimes it sets my teeth on edge because I’m never sure whether you’re doing it because you think I hate physical affection—which I don’t—or whether you’ll think it will trigger my PTSD and I’ll attack you.”

“What? No! I just—so before we got together, I had been noticing you a lot, right? Keeping an eye on you and all that stuff, some real creepy stalker shit. Anyway, I just noticed that aside from the occasional group hug, or a pat on the back or ruffle of hair, you didn’t really _touch_ anyone. I just figured you were doing it because that’s what a team leader does, not what you like.”

“Keith doesn’t really like to be touched,” said Shiro. “He gets anxious when someone gets in his personal space without permission, which leads to him getting angry. And I never really knew Hunk on a personal level before I got into a relationship with you. And Pidge is never around outside missions to give hugs or affection to.”

Lance’s lips twitched. “And what about me?”

“You?” Shiro squeezed Lance until he began to cough and splutter jokingly, pushing on Shiro’s clavicle. “Well, you were always so hot I was scared that if I hugged you, I’d never let go. And verbal affection? Forget about it. I’d get so carried away I’d start waxing poetic about your _magnificent ass_ —”

The tips of Lance’s ears were bright red. “ _Shiro_!”

Shiro laughed. “Hey, you asked.”

“God, you’re so embarrassing.”

That only made Shiro laugh louder.

Lance pouted, until Shiro ducked his head and pecked him on the lips. “So have we cleared the air?”

“I think so,” said Shiro. “If I think of anything more, I’ll talk to you.”

“Seems like we should really work on getting better at that.” At Shiro’s quizzical glance, Lance clarified, “Talking to each other.”

“Yeah. How about we make a pinky promise? You do heaps of those with Hunk, don’t think I don’t see. We promise that whenever there’s something we want, or if there’s something that the other does that we don’t like, we talk to each other about it.” Shiro held out his pinky, and Lance hooked his own pinky finger around it. “Deal.”

“Deal.”

"Also, Lance, I really need to ask you one thing before I forget."

Lance canted his head. "Yeah?"

"How is heat sex supposed to _work_?"

There was a pause.

"What? I thought you would know!"

"How the hell am I supposed to know? My ex was a beta," said Shiro. "You're the first omega I have ever been with."

Lance paled. "But I've been on suppressants ever since I've presented! I don't know how this works any more than you do."

"Oh shit..."

They paused, staring at each other in abject horror. Reaching a conclusion at once, they were bounding across the room and into the hall like skittish puppies.

" _Pidge!_ "

 

* * *

 

Keeping a promise is easier said than done, but in the days leading up to Lance’s heat, they really worked on it. Shiro tentatively moved into Lance’s room to sleep, keeping some of his stuff in his own bedroom in case he needed to move back.

There were six days to go before Lance’s heat began. Of those nights, there were two where Shiro was genuinely too anxious and upset to share a room with another person, and so Lance let him have his space. Didn’t give him a kiss before he left, but wished Shiro as good of a night’s rest as he could get, and that he would see him in the morning. His understanding earned him the best damn hugs in the universe—well, second to his mother’s hugs—the next day.

Lance started to learn to give more physical affection, refusing to be swayed by the team’s teasing, learning after one outburst that they genuinely meant no harm and were actually quite happy for the two of them. The ribbing came from a good place, so he let it go. And the physical affection also seemed to do wonders for Shiro’s anxiety; he was less tense, less stressed—and a good back massage always got him to leave his work before the Castle’s appointed midnight hour.

He knew that one day they’d step on each other’s toes too much, be less understanding toward each other’s needs when in the midst of a rage, but he was confident that when that day came, they were confident enough in their love to pull through. All they needed was a little communication.

 

* * *

 

Lance didn’t remember a lot about his heat. There were times when he seemed to flit in and out of consciousness, his body working on autopilot. It knew what Lance wanted better than Lance knew. He had several flashes of him riding Shiro, or getting pounded into the mattress, and coming so much he wondered if the sheets would ever be clean again.

He remembered Shiro being careful with him, massaging the tension out of Lance’s muscles during the down periods between sex, and did his best to reciprocate. Over the course of those three days, they had more muscle cramps than ever, and they peed so much it was ridiculous.

There was a lot of laughter, too; the hilarity of the situations they wound up in, instincts manipulating their bodies around until they were fucking each other in the most wild, precarious positions that failed more often than not. Like over the back of the chair in Lance’s room that tipped over and caused them to sprawl ungainly across the floor. Or having to make a note to find more coat-hangers because they ripped and broke half of them when the door to the wardrobe slid open and they fell inside. And they really needed to clean the fake windows before anyone saw the impression of Lance’s front, dick and all, pressed into it.

But it was the best three days of Lance’s life.

Knotting was, above and beyond, the best thing ever. With condoms, of course. No way was he ever having a baby when he was in the middle of a goddamn war. But being plugged up and filled like that, being connected to Shiro in such a profoundly intimate way, made him tremble just thinking about it. In all the times he’d had sex, he had never known a pleasure like that.

If talking to Shiro about his wants and desires got him that much pleasure, he would gladly be as communicative as possible for the duration they would be together. He’d do right by Shiro and make him the happiest person in the universe.

Shiro snored so loud he woke himself up, head jerking off Lance’s chest with an indecipherable mutter. Lance giggled, running his fingers through Shiro’s hair. Shiro shuddered in delight, stretched out a little more, and pillowed his head on Lance’s chest once more. He was asleep within seconds.

Yeah, he’d make Shiro as happy as possible, but he couldn’t be the happiest man in the universe right now—not when Lance felt this lucky.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment if you enjoyed it! Comments are what sustains an author's motivation. If you want more fics, you have to do your part. Don't just read and leave. That's not fair. 
> 
> Maybe I'll write a fic about their heat sex and how torn apart that poor bedroom got. These silly boys couldn't contain their lust to the actual bed. 
> 
> Find me on Tumblr @tarkl0vishki.


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